Monday, September 29, 1919

Beautiful bright day. Very foggy in A.M. To College 7:45 A.M. to 3:30 P.M. Down town. Bowled at star alleys. To Classical Club meeting in Prof. Fobe's room. Light refreshments. To [bed?] 11 P.M.

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This is the first time I've heard of the Classical Club (perhaps there were some entries about it early in the year). I have not been able to find information about the club itself, but I did find an article published on September 7, 1921 in the Schenectady Gazette that told of several new instructors hired at Union College that fall, one of whom was James M. Cline, a 1920 graduate of Union College and a 4-year member of the Classical Club, so it's likely that Stanford knew him. Mr. Cline was hired to teach English to Freshman and Sophomore students.

Professor Fobes was a little easier to track down. Dr. Francis Howard Fobes was professor of classics at Union College up until 1920, when he was hired at Amherst College, where he taught for the rest of his long career. Since he was from Massachusetts, it makes sense that he would go back there. He was a well known classical scholar, author of two books--one on Aristotle and one on Theophrastus.

He was born August 31, 1881 at Somersville, MA to Edwin F. Fobes of Massachusetts and Jessie Burnell of Ohio. His father's work was "manufacturing confections" according to the 1900 census. Turns out that's rather an understatement, since Edwin Fobes was to become the President of New England Confectionery Company, otherwise known as NECCO. In fact, he was one of the founders of NECCO which merged three candy companies in 1902, one of which was Fobes, Hayward & Co, started by his father, Daniel Fobes (Hayward was Daniel's wife's maiden name). Moreover, Daniel Fobes has the distinction of being credited with the invention of the flavor mocha.

Professor Francis Fobes never married. He lived with his parents for a time, then by WWII had moved into the dormitory on Amherst Campus. (He lived on campus at Union College, too, which explains why the students met in his room for Classical Club.) He taught from 1920 to 1948 at Amherst, then was emeritus until his death in 1957.  There is no picture of him that I can find, but I was able to locate pictures of his grandparents on The American Antiquarian website. Here they are in daguerreotype:


Daniel Fobes, Candy Maker and Purported Inventor of Mocha



Lucretia Fobes, wife of Daniel, grandmother of Francis Fobes, Stanford's teacher